The invention is related to a water optimizing system for toilets that includes a maximum or minimum water flush multiadjustable assembly provided with one or two flushing units for this purpose and an also adjustable overflow pipe provided for each flushing valve.
As a result of the urgent need to save and optimize as much as possible the water used in toilets with a water reception tank, different water saving systems have been developed, among which it is possible to find systems that operate with two total or partial water flush levels, and the most common those that evacuate the toilet with a single flushing valve located near the bottom of the tank. The latter single systems are fixed and lack fixtures that allow them, for example, to raise the valve seat to reduce to the necessary minimum the optimum flush volume of water contained in the tank, consequently, with these systems, almost all the water volume in the tank is invariably flushed. In the systems that allow total or partial flushing of the tank water in some cases, as in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,839,759; 1,960,864 and 2,964,095, the height of the upper valve seat can be regulated due to the threaded coupling of such seat with the flush passage. In these systems, however, the seat of the lower valve cannot be adjusted and therefore, when the corresponding handle is activated, practically the entire content of liquid is drained from the tank.
Each different toilet model has the capacity to evacuate optimally a certain volume of water. This volume depends directly on the maximum height of the upper level of water in the tank. Thus, the higher, the level, the lesser volume of water required. Once said volume is defined it can be regulated until it is optimized via a adjustable water flush system.
After having observed the behavior of the water flushing in several hundred operating toilets, it was discovered that in several dozens of a single model, most of these toilets required a different volume of water to evacuate efficiently, in spite of the fact that they were identical, this difference even being up to four liters more in comparison with the toilet that showed the most economy. In all cases, the volume of water required was less in proportion to the greater slope or vertical drop of the drainage.
Obviously, conventional toilet models that operate with a single flush passage are not capable of optimizing the volume of water needed to fulfill their purpose since because of their fixed nature with respect to the bottom of the tank, as well as the immobility of their valve seats, they lack adjustability. These models always flush the same volume of water -almost the whole contents of the tank- which, in most of cases, is more than the water needed for efficient operation.
In the case of toilets that operate with a total or partial flush system, although the partial discharge may be regulated, total discharge in these systems has the same inconvenience as those with a single valve, since none of those known or described in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,864,095; 1,960,864; 2,839,759; 4,173,801; 4,353,130; 4,056,856; 4,829,605; 1,767,043; 4,504,984 and 4,096,591, offers the possibility of adjusting the water volume of the total flush because the lower valve is invariably fixed. All these patents refer to a double discharge systems, as in the case of this invention in one of its embodiments, with the exception of the systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,960,864; 2,839,759 and 2,864,856, which are capable of adjusting their upper water level; the rest of the double flush systems of the above-mentioned patents, once installed, cannot optimize the water discharge to the toilet bowl.
With the system of this invention, the disadvantage of the systems in use is solved by means of flush passages provided with threads for threaded coupling with their respective valve mouths or seats which are also threaded, and by which the discharge water level can be adjusted for each case, that is, when the maximum flush or the minimum flush handle is activated. It will be noted that throughout the description of this invention, it is mentioned "maximum" or "minimum" flush, and this is due to the fact that this system does not provide total flush of the water contained in the tank. As will be observed in the attached drawings, the level of the lower valve is farther from the tank bottom than in the case of double flush systems similar to this invention. It can be thereby secured that the water volume below the height of the discharge mouth or seat of the lower valve will not be drained, avoiding water waste.
In addition to the possibility of adjusting the height of the flushing valves in this system, alternatively, adjustment thereof is obtained via threaded portion in the discharge pipe that allows it to raise or lower selectively in order to adjust the height of the system from the junction with the tank bottom. None of the present systems of one or two valves offers this possibility, even though in some of them a similar threaded portion is shown which, however, only serves to fix the system to the bottom of the tank and not to make its adjustment possible with the aim of optimizing the water flush.
On the other hand, in the models proposed in the corresponding previous art, it can be seen that they do not offer the possibility of choosing between the use of a single valve or a double valve system. The specific construction, in the majority of cases rather complex, of double valve systems, in which the two valves are integral to a tubular piece, requires the user to employ this system obligatorily, regardless of whether the toilet, for reasons of drainage, may only require a conventional single valve system that is necessarily cheaper than a double one.
Another inconvenience of the double valve systems of the mentioned patents is that because of their integral structure, the damage that may occur, for example, in one of the valves, or in the tubular piece that supports them, makes it necessary to do without both and buy a new system. This means that it is not possible to remove only the damaged part from the system.
With the water discharge system of this invention, conceived to be structured in a modular form, the installer or purchaser is given the opportunity to choose a two valve system using a valve communication chamber to which are connected by threads two identical valve assemblies, or a single valve system that does not use the mentioned chamber. In either case, the height of the flushing valve(s) can be adjusted as required by the toilet conditions.
Another structurally important and economically advantageous difference of the system here proposed with respect to the prior systems is the construction of its components in the form of substantially identical modules, in the case of damage to one of the parts avoiding total substitution of the system by replacing only the component -for example, the valve seat, the valve itself, the water discharge pipe or the valve communicating chamber- that is not optimum operating conditions. This naturally represents an unquestionable benefit for the purchaser.
Another feature that makes the flush system of this invention functionally and technically different from those previously proposed is that in the maximum and minimum flush embodiment each valve assembly has its own overflow pipe that is integral to the tubular portion whose upper end is the valve seat. Given the different adjustability options of the system, each overflow pipe has its own adjustable element consisting of a tubular section that is coupled by threading and that in turn adjust the height of said overflow pipe so that its upper end is slightly above the maximum water level in the tank.
The incorporation of valve assemblies having their own overflow pipe in the system here claimed constitutes another innovation to related systems, since the double vent allows, when the water is displaced through either of the two flush mouths, the air inside the discharge passages to be displaced outside of them via the overflow pipe of the valve that has not been activated, thereby avoiding the nonactivated valve tends to become unplugged by pneumatic pressure caused by the air displaced by the discharge of water. It is believed to be possible that at least in some of the double valve systems developed before, the provision of a single overflow pipe favors the involuntary "lifting" of the non-activated valve due to the mentioned pneumatic pressure.
In addition to the foregoing, the overflow pipe of the system here proposed incorporates as an integral part a projection at a particular point of its length where there is fastened in a pivotal manner one end of the bar that is connected by its opposite end to the valve that seals the corresponding discharge orifice. The projection is also shaped in a way that serves as a stop limiting the ascending pivotal movement of the said valve lift.
With respect to the flushing valves of the already known systems, it is observed that there are several types of them like those with a flat sealing surface whose sealing position is sloped, and others with a horizontal seating whose sealing surface is conical or spherical. Contrary to these, the flushing valve model inherent in the system of this invention has the characteristic that while being flat, it is horizontal and consists of a body of rigid material to be operated without deformations, which incorporates in its section contacting the valve seat a resilient sealing ring that when compressed by the water pressure seals the union of the valve with its respective seat.
The system's valve is also distinguished by a lower protuberance that serves as guide and ballast in a form similar to some models already proposed previously, tut in contrast to them the valve body and the protuberance are hollow and made of a single piece. These features make the floating of the valve notably efficient and the hydrodynamic protuberance does not obstruct the water discharge from the toilet bowl, nor does it become a water impact body that obliges the valve to descend. In contrast, the ball used as a guide and ballast element for the valve in the system of U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,323, when the said valve is activated, remains exactly in the discharge mouth, obstructing the flow of water that is being flushed.